First Signs of Spring

Spring is really late this year, but I spotted the first sign out on my new hill today. When mom my was here in the Fall we planted lots of bulbs on the hill, and now we are seeing the "fruits of our labors."

I saw this post today that one of my friends wrote, and I liked it so much that I am borrowing it.

"Daffodils and crocuses and hyacinths and tulips...Kind of makes me wonder what I'm doing now that I won't see the proof of until the time is right. I guess I had better keep plugging away."

So This Is What All the Fuss Is About

Symptoms:

Runny Nose
Diarehea
Crankiness
Waking often at night

Can you guess? Yep, Danielle is getting two new molars on the top. She still only has her two teeth on the bottom, and now this will make six on top. Weird!

What's This

Daddy...what is this?

Eddie's mom brought him over one of his old records and when Brian saw it this was what he asked. We also have some old records and a broken record player in the garage. It is funny how in only one generation technology has moved so quickly that our children don't even know a record when they see one. Someday we may fix the record player, and show the kids how they work.

Busy Saturday

As usual we are on the go go go today. First thing in the morning Emily and I went to her gymnastics for a makeup day since classes were cancelled this week because of the snow. When we arrived home everyone was starving and we decided to have lunch at Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger. They have great hamburgers, and the kids like the meals that are served in a classic car box. It was busy, so there was a little bit of a wait, but we all survived and had a nice meal.

Then I had a couple of errands I wanted to get accomplished before the evening events. We went to the Target in Bryant to see if I could find some of the additional pieces for my new play room organization. I got a few more things I needed, but I am still missing some fabric baskets, so I will have to keep checking. Then a quick run to the Zoo for a Cupid surprise.

I really like how the playroom is coming together, these cubes are great.

Emily had a birthday party at Millennium Bowl, for Lily, one of her friends that she used to go to Gymboree with. This party had also been rescheduled because of the snow. The whole family went, and Brian and Eddie got their own lane and bowled a few games while Emily and the birthday party friends played a few lanes away. I even bowled a game on the adult lane. It was fun, although I am not sure that 4 year olds can really appreciate bowling? I took no pictures of this, I think I must be in a camera funk, but you can check out the link above, although there is no proof that Emily was there from the posted pictures.

Later that night, Jenna brought the kids over for us to watch. Her and James wanted to go out and see Avatar, and so the kids watched their own movie, ate popcorn and fell asleep on the floor.

My Little Valentine's

My littlest valentine turned 17 months old today. She is growing up too fast. I know I keep saying that, but it is so sad. She is very good, and super cute, but also a full on drama queen. She gets upset over little things, puts her hand over her face, drops to the floor and starts crying. You have to try really hard not to crack up laughing. She is so sensitive that if you started laughing she would get even more upset.






My middle valentine, is so sweet and thoughtful. She had her valentine party at Gymboree yesterday. We made cute valentines for all the girls in her class. They had cookies and even danced with the boys. Emily told me she danced with Ashton, and that none of the boys wanted to participate. Emily also had another opportunity to wear her heart shirt that she made.



My oldest valentine, is very caring and sensitive. His school valentine party is on Friday. We are bringing the sprinkles for the cupcakes, and they are making a cute craft. We have been busy addressing airplane cards for his class. It was a homework assignment this year for the kids to write the names on their valentines. What a great idea to help the kids practice their handwriting.


These are the baby animals that the kids got for Christmas, Brian's cub "Roary" is his baby. He feeds him sleeps with him, and I think he even dresses him in clothes sometimes.


Here's the little One-Eyed Valentine Monster they made in class. Well he actually lost an eye, and a ear, but I found a replacement for that.

Sopapillas and Sharing

Growing up in Denver, I had on occasion the opportunity to go to the legendary Casa Bonita. It is not legendary for the food, with one exception the sopapillas. Each table comes with a little red flag, raise the flag and they bring you more sopapillas. They are so yummy! They also had cliff divers and other entertainment which is fun for kids, but now that I am older and wiser, the sopapillas are really the only thing worth remembering. But like other things in life that I love and now because of my “remote” living conditions I am unable to procure, (read Chipotle) sopapillas are one of those things.

I couple of years ago, I found this recipe and tried it. They turned out pretty well. Now whenever I get that craving, I make them at home. Today was one of those days. With nothing else to do, sopapillas were on the list. I made heart shaped ones, in honor of Valentines Day week.
It makes a huge batch and they don’t keep very well. So I ran a plate over to our neighbors. They have lived next door to us since we moved in eight years ago. They have three boys ages 9, 7 and 4. Our kids get along really well and they are great neighbors. They put their house for sale about 6 months ago, and today they got an offer that they are planning to accept. I have known that they would probably end up moving sooner or later and now it looks like sooner. I am sad to see them move. I enjoy talking to Katie and knowing that my kids are safe and having fun playing with their boys. We will miss their family being our neighbors.

Snow SNOW Day

When Eddie woke up about 1:00am to check on a crying kid, he noticed it was snowing big flakes outside. I thought for a moment that we might have a snow day, there had been no predictions about snow in the forecast so this would come as a big surprise. My hopes were momentarily dashed when I woke up and looked at the clock, 6:15am. No automated call from the LRSD letting us know that school had been cancelled. I logged onto the website from my iphone next to my bed. Yippee, schools were closed! The phone rang a couple of minutes later informing us of the closure.

I got up, and sure enough the ground was white. It had stopped snowing, so Eddie got ready to head to work. I caught up on dishes and laundry while the kids slept in. Brian and Emily didn’t wake up until 9:00am, a new record. I think everyone was tired from the birthday party yesterday. Eddie called just before 10:00am, he wanted to make sure that we looked out the window to see the big beautiful snowflakes falling. I immediately got everyone dressed, bundled up and outside to play.

We took pictures, played in the snow, and built a snowman. It was so pretty to watch the snow falling. I love snow!! After about an hour, Emily was ready to come inside, and Danielle was cold. So we headed inside, to warm up. Brian stayed outside to play with the neighbors.

After it had been snowing hard for about an hour and a half, I called Eddie to have him head home. I didn’t want him to get stuck at the office. He arrived just as we were getting ready for lunch. It snowed hard until about 2:00pm, when it had warmed up enough that the snow changed to rain. Eddie was planning to go outside and build more snowpeople with the kids but now it was too wet to play. We scooped up some fresh snow to make snow ice cream before it got too wet,we needed ice cream to go with our brownies. I grew up in Colorado where there is lots of snow each year and I have never heard of snow ice cream??



Update...Tuesday and Wednesday were also snow days. The LRSD made the decision to keep the schools closed because of icy conditions especially in the neighborhoods. It was a nice break from the daily routine.